Merkel says country ready to compromise with EU on budget

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that her government will try to find a compromise with the EU over its 2007-2013 budget, but warned Germany would not accept too great a burden. Merkel told parliament's lower house that the stakes were high in December's EU summit and said she would press for a lasting "solution which is in the pan-European interest."

"Germany is prepared to contribute to a sensible compromise," she said. Merkel said Germany's "frightening" debt levels meant the economy would not be able to tolerate new budget obligations.

In June, an EU summit ended without agreement after Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker proposed a spending cap of 1.06 percent of gross domestic product and a freeze of Britain's controversial annual Ђ4.6 billion (US$5.42 billion) rebate on its EU contributions until 2013, with the French, in exchange, being prepared to renegotiate farm subsidies, reports the AP.
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In response to the unlawful December 1 arrest and detention of Chinese tech giant Huawei's chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities in Vancouver at the behest of the Trump regime, facing possible unacceptable extradition to the US, Beijing warned its high-tech personnel last month against traveling to America unless it's essential.